Hong Kong press club pressured by Beijing to cancel talk

Hong Kong’s leader joined mainland China Sunday in urging the city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club to cancel a planned speech by a Hong Kong independence advocate whose party is threatened with a ban. “We respect the international media and respect the Foreign Correspondents’ Club’s activities in Hong Kong,” said Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, expressing “regret” at the planned event. “I hope our friends in the FCC will also respect that the Hong Kong SAR is an inseparable part of the People’s Republic of China,” she said, noting that its historic club building was government-owned.